Tran Thi Phung, who was caught abusing a
three-year-old girl in a video clip disseminated online, was prosecuted and held
in custody at the order of the People’s Procuracy in Binh Duong Province’s Thuan
An District.

Tran Thi Phung. (Photo: Internet)

Phung,
52, who runs a nursery in the district’s Thuan Giao Commune, was charged with
physical abuse and maltreatment of children according to criminal law, said
prosecutors.

A hidden
camera recorded Phung stomping on the body, pulling the hair and splashing water
into the mouth of Ho Thuy Ngoc Ngan, one of the children entrusted to her care.

The clip
was launched on the internet last Tuesday and immediately stirred anger across
the country.

Local
police tracked down the nursery just several hours later. Phung admitted to
being the woman in the video, but said she had just been washing the girl as she
normally did.

The
footage was clear enough for criminal prosecution, and investigation was still
underway, said provincial prosecutor Tran Tri Thuc.

The
commune’s Hoa Mai Kindergarten offered to care for Ngan even though it was
already overloaded, said the kindergarten’s principal Nguyen Thi Hau.

Ngan’s
mother, a worker at the locally based Hai My Footwear Company, was given several
days off to take care of her daughter.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News